Conventionally, in a thermal printer which transfers ribbon to carry out printing, a control is carried out to stop the conveyance of the ribbon in a non-printing area to reduce the consumption amount of the ribbon.
It is necessary to decelerate gradually matching with the sheet conveyance speed in a case of stopping the conveyance of the ribbon. However, even in the non-printing area, the sheet is still conveyed at the same speed applied in a case of carrying out printing. As a result, much time is taken until the conveyance of the ribbon is stopped, and the ribbon is wasted during the time.